Blog: The Red Box - where is the line?

Detectives who arrested Damian Green also want to question David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary, The Times has learnt.

Counter-terrorism officers investigating the leak of material from the Home Office over a two-year period believe Mr Davis has information that would be important to their inquiry.

Mr Davis resigned from the Conservative front bench this year to fight a by-election over the issue of antiterrorist detention powers. He was Mr Green’s boss in the Tory home affairs team when the frontbench immigration spokesman was in contact with Christopher Galley, the civil servant arrested as part of an investigation of up to 20 leaks.

As well as threatening the careers of politicians and senior policemen, the inquiry has become so sensitive that police are wary of approaching Mr Davis. A source said: “If we’re going to follow the evidence we need to speak to Mr Davis. But if we do that, we raise the temperature even further.”

In a weekend newspaper article, Mr Davis said that everything Mr Green had done had been “with my implicit or explicit support”. He added: “He is guilty of nothing that anyone would recognise as a crime.”

Mr Galley appeared yesterday with his solicitor, Neil O’May, who said that his client had acted in the public interest. “Those who instigated this investigation . . . should consider whether this was a proportionate way to deal with the issue,” he said. “If there was ever a case of ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ then this is it.”

Mr O’May, who represented Lord Levy in the cash-for-honours inquiry, said rumours that Mr Galley had been part of an entrapment operation on Mr Green were “malicious” and “wholly untrue”.

Conservative sources claimed that Mr Galley had first approached the party in May 2006 expressing concern about the way in which the immigration department was being run.

Six months later, he wrote to Mr Green asking for a job and was turned down without an interview. Mr Green met Mr Galley most recently in September and bought him a drink.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, was repeatedly asked whether she knew that an MP was under investigation in the leak inquiry but insisted: “I did not know the specifics of the investigation.” She added: “It is a serious issue if a senior politican is arrested but what I am absolutely clear, and in no doubt about, is nobody is above the law. The police should carry out their statutory investigation without fear or favour.” Her words echoed growing concern within the police force that their independence from party politics was being compromised.

Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “The independence of UK law enforcement from undue influence and pressure is the jewel in the crown in our system of criminal justice.”

Mr Jones is one of at least seven senior police officers who have applied for the post of Metropolitan Police commissioner. The applicants also include the two senior officers at the centre of the Green controversy - Sir Paul Stephenson, the Acting Metropolitan Commissioner, and the Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, head of specialist operations.

Mr Quick made the decision to arrest Mr Green, a move that was approved of by Sir Paul, who then had a row with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, about the tactics used.

Ministers faced more embarrassment after details of a private meeting on the Green affair were leaked to the Tories. An e-mail was mistakenly sent to an employee in the office of Philip Hammond, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The person has the same surname as the intended recipient in the Cabinet Office. Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is a completely improper meeting convened . . . to manage the Speaker’s statement without any representation from other parliamentarians.”

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